Sitting in darkness,I see how the light of the city fills the clouds, rosewater lightpoured into the skylike the single body we are. It is the sumof a million lives, a man drinking beerbeneath a light bulb, a dancer spinningin a fluorescent room, a girl reading a bookbeneath a lamp.

Yet there are others- astronomers, thieves, lovers- whose work is only donein darkness. Sometimes I don’t want to show these poemsto anyone, sometimesI want to remain hidden, deep in the coalswith the one who pulls the starsthrough a telescope’s glass, the one who listensfor the click of the lock, the onewho kisses softly a woman’s eyes.